rooks

chickenfan said:
For me, part of the objective of keeping poultry is to ensure that they have interesting and enjoyable lives because of the way most poultry are treated. I have done so much research on the bloodlines and eggs my birds have hatched from, and am now breeding from birds which have particularly nice character traits, or lay particularly good-tasting or beautiful eggs. As such, occasional visits to the BHWT vet may be worth it to me because I get so much pleasure from my birds, and could not easily replace them. Similarly, one can choose only mature birds which have had no health issues for breeding.
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The problem is that as you breed from below par parents just because you are fond of a particular characteristic you are producing inferior birds that are prone to ailments and deformities. Most people would not be able to afford to keep visiting the vet for medication for their ailing flock. I wondered why you seemed to have so much bad luck with the health of your flock and assumed it must be due their environment, but now realise that your choice of parent stock may be the problem. I have kept and bred chicken and turkeys for a number of years and try to make sure the hatching eggs are coming from mature healthy stock.
 
It is extremely difficult to source purebred stock that is well bred. Most of it is line bred or chronically in-bred to meet 'breed standards' for showing. The comparison with the quality and vigour of chicks I have raised from my own birds is incomparable. Neither the bird with the broken leg nor the bird with the prolapse were from my own breeding stock but were from eggs bought in. It inevitably takes many years to build ones own lines.

Please think before you make assumptions Sussex.
 
We seem to have strayed far off topic here, and whilst discussion on this forum can become robust at times, we do generally respect each other's point of view and personal integrity. We don't have to agree on everything, but we're all trying to do the best for our birds, otherwise we wouldn't be bothering to come on here and share our experiences and advice. I think your recent comment was unkind and uncalled-for, Sussex. People have to feel free to ask advice without being criticised, we are a mutually- supportive group of friends who are learning together.
Has anyone got anything else to add on the subject of rooks?
 
I was dead-wooding a lime tree in Solihull a couple of years back and strayed too close to a rooks nest that I hadn't seen before climbing. The parents gave me hell and I had to climb out quick!
 
We're they 'Now that's what I call Hip Hop 2005'? Rooks have some taste y'know :)
... Joni or Kate Bush would have disastrous consequences!
 
An interesting and sometimes peppery little post this!
My problem, apart from the fox that is, is a pair of wood pidgeons that have become so tame that they are totally unafraid of me, the cat, and even the Pekins that chase them. The b...dy things will NOT be deterred.
As soon as the bantams vacate their hut, the pigeons move in.
Obvious answer is close the door of the hut but the girls love wandering in the garden, having a drink, snack, lay an egg, whatever mood takes them when I am out in the garden and watching them freerange. To me this is part of a chicken's good quality of life, and I am determined not to let a couple of wild birds spoil it for them.
Anyone for pigeon pie?
 
Further to my last post re. horrible pigeons, I found, accidentally, the ultimate deterrent.
On Wednesday (my birthday) my local family gave me a comical (and lovely) upright tin cockerel, quite large, so I put it out in the middle of the garden
not only did the pigeons take off, also a couple of crows who are getting a bit noisy.
Then I let the bantams out of their hut to see if the pigeons came back, poor bantams took one look at the creature and parted like the Red Sea, to get to their garden goal, and then would not shift anywhere near the statue!
So cockerel in sight of pigeons and crows, but not bantams - bit tricky.
 
I bought a very colourful tin cockerel for Rosie two years ago and had never seen them in England- it lives on a shelf in the house as it is too nice to risk in the garden. But there are lots of very large ones for sale as garden ornaments in the shops here, so perhaps they are more than just an ornament Valerie and have real practical value?
 
We were given a small tin cockerel by a friend and it stood in the kitchen, on the floor, near the dogs bowl. Whenever there was a dogs dinner raid they would rush in, clean out the bowl then beat up the cockerel!
 
Having seen what my old boy Godzilla did to a pigeon I brought down in his territory I'm not surprised they are wary of anything resembling a cockerel. Interesting to note that we hadn't seen a single wood pigeon here in almost 3 months until the crow colony was wiped out, they used to mob absolutely anything that flew within a fairly wide radius of the huge tree they were nesting in, especially red kites but also one one occasion a poor Heron who was just trying to fly North and who gave up and went the long way after 3 failed attempts. So it just goes to show, you kill off one thing you encourage another, my cat killed 8 shrews in a fortnight and now we have a slug problem.
 
We have a battery-powered owl, that turns its head and emits realistic hooing noises when switched on. I've never tried it on the hens but if we had a crow problem I would be tempted to give it a go. I think the hens would probably go into freeze-in-panic mode if put it in their run!
 
Amazing! That sounds very useful Marigold. Fortunately the rooks seem to have disappeared as suddenly as they appeared in the first place. I think the key has been being vigilant and not leaving any food out. They I give the growers supervised feeding sessions. They seem to have learned to eat a lot from the environment too.
 
Apparently the main health risk to rooks is gapeworm, so important to worm if you've had rooks around.
 
Going back to an early part of this post, it seems the main drug used by vets for Euthanasia is Pentobarbital. If the animal is buried research shows that 'this has led to an increasing environmental hazard. Pentobarbital is leaching into soil, water, and even the food supply'.
 
Marigold said:
We have a battery-powered owl, that turns its head and emits realistic hooing noises when switched on. I've never tried it on the hens but if we had a crow problem I would be tempted to give it a go. I think the hens would probably go into freeze-in-panic mode if put it in their run!
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we have a big fake owl whose eyes light up at night mounted in our cherry tree to keep the pigeons off our cherries. i see birds of all sorts aiming for garden to veer off as soon as they see it, so it works very well at keeping other birds out of our garden. except the pied wagtails, they have been stealing errant chicken feathers for their nests, bless them. the chickens don't like it and chase them off, but no pigeons/gulls/ravens/magpies bother flying into the garden now. highly recommend a fake owl to keep birds out
 
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